The scientific committee is proud to present five superb key-note speakers that were asked to give cross-border presentations linking veterinary epidemiology and economics to related and emerging scientific disciplines.

Prof. Derek Smith will make a bridge between molecular research and veterinary epidemiology. Derek Smith is Professor of Infectious Disease Informatics in the Centre for Pathogen Evolution at Cambridge University (UK). His research concerns the use antigenic cartography, along with genetic and population biology techniques, to study basic questions in pathogen evolution, and coevolution with the acquired immunity in host populations. Antigenic cartography is a new mathematical and computational method which for the first time allows one to quantify and visualize fine-grain phenotypic differences among strains of viruses or bacteria. Antigenic cartography has been developed using data on human influenza virus subtype A(H3N2), and is routinely used to analyze the global data from the World Health Organization influenza surveillance network as part of the influenza vaccine strain selection process.

The link between climate change, global warming and animal diseases will de critically discussed by Prof. David Rogers (Oxford University). David Rogers is a Professor of Ecology, and specializes in temporal Fourier processing of satellite data and the development of discriminant analytical models to describe the distribution and abundance of vectors and diseases, in the form of risk maps. He is leader of the TALA Research group which he founded in 1993 to examine the role of remote sensing in predicting the distribution and abundance of tsetse flies and the incidence and prevalence of tsetse-transmitted diseases.  Today TALA, now part of the larger Spatial Ecology and Epidemiology Group (SEEG) within the Department of Zoology, is a recognized leader in the field of low resolution image processing and applications to a wide variety of diseases.  TALA developed temporal Fourier processing techniques to capture elements of habitat seasonality in the NOAA AVHRR satellite data time series, and non-linear discriminant analysis to use the Fourier imagery to describe vector and disease distributions and abundance.  This unique combination of image processing and application has now been applied to a wide range of diseases, from anthrax to West Nile Virus locally, regionally and globally. TALA has applied and developed a wide range of time series analytical techniques to examine trends in key seasonality variables across continents and to show changes in the epidemiology of a variety of vector-borne diseases through time.

The applications of the emerging field of social media and social networks in epidemiology will be illustrated by Dr. Theresa Bernardo (Michigan State University). Dr. Theresa Bernardo works at the intersection of new information technologies with health, education and international development.  She has over a decade of experience in the United Nations and Inter-American systems working in health informatics (humans, food, animals and plants).  From 2009 - 2010 she led Knowledge Management and Communications for the Americas Regional Office of the World Health Organization where she had first-hand exposure to the usefulness of social media in responding to the two most serious emergencies in the history of the organization: Pandemic H1N1 (swine flu); and the Haitian earthquake and subsequent cholera outbreak.  She began working in digital disease detection in the early 1990's with development of a tri-lingual software application for global reporting and mapping of animal diseases and zoonoses that was eventually adopted by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  She is currently leading multidisciplinary initiatives at Michigan State University that incorporate new media and collaborative behaviours to promote healthy people, communities, environments and economies.  Dr. Bernardo holds DVM and MSc degrees from the University of Guelph and the University of Prince Edward Island, respectively.  She believes that we have much to learn from social media natives not just about technology, but the collaborative behaviour required for success in dealing with 21st century challenges.

Prof. Ynte Hein Schukken (Cornell University) will introduce the session on epidemiology in veterinary practice by illustrating the link between epidemiological research and daily veterinary practice. Prof. Schukken is both Director of Quality Milk Production Services and professor of Epidemiology and Herd Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. He is graduated as DVM from Utrecht University and holds a master degree from Cornell university. In 1990 he got a PhD from Utrecht University with as title Epidemiological studies on clinical mastitis in herds with a low bulk milk somatic cell count. Ever since his research has been a comprehensive application of epidemiological, mathematical and patho-biological methods. This integrated approach emphasizing strong collaborations with scientists in related but different disciplines has proven to be the most productive solutions to research questions. Prof. Schukken enjoys working in the field and with animals. Often field data provide crucial information and hypotheses that lead to formulation of research questions. However, field data are often crude with many potential biases. More precise measurements and study designs in controlled environments may provide further insight into the disease dynamics. Applied immunology and bacterial molecular typing methods provide a high resolution for detailed insight into infection dynamics within and between hosts. Results from these experimental studies are then be further verified under field conditions.

In collaboration with the European College of Veterinary Public Health (ECVPH) Dr. Katinka De Balogh (FAO) will talk on the link between epidemiology and Food Safety and Food Security from a global perspective. Katinka de Balogh, Dutch/Hungarian grew up in Latin-America and studied veterinary medicine in Germany (Berlin and Munich). In 1984 she obtained a doctorate in tropical parasitology from the Tropical Institute of the LM University in Munich. Thereafter she specialised in tropical animal production and health in Maisons-Alfort, France and later in Veterinary Public Health (VPH). After a short career as a zoo veterinarian, she worked in Africa for 9 years as District Veterinary Officer in rural Zambia and as lecturer at the veterinary faculties of Lusaka (Zambia) and Maputo (Mozambique). From 1997 she became a lecturer in Veterinary Public Health at the veterinary faculty of Utrecht University, the Netherlands. In the late 80”s she had spent two years as a associate expert at the Veterinary Public Health Unit of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva and in 2002 started to work at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy in the UK/DFID funded Pro-poor Livestock Policy Facility. After the emergence of H5N1 she became a coordinator for avian influenza projects as well as response manager of the newly created Crisis Management Centre (CMC) - Animal Health. Since 2007 she holds the position of Senior Officer – Veterinary Public Health at the Animal Health Service where she leads the global veterinary public health activities of FAO.